Remote management technology, such as Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), may be used for remote management of server computers or other information processing apparatuses. In the case of using the IPMI, remote management hardware for receiving commands from a terminal over a network needs to be installed in an information processing apparatus, separately from a processor that executes Operating System (OS) and application software. From a security perspective, a communication port for the management may be provided in the information processing apparatus, separately from a communication port for data communication, so as to separate a management network from a data communication network.
The IPMI enables remotely collecting control information indicating the hardware status of the information processing apparatus and changing the hardware behavior of the information processing apparatus. For example, it is possible to collect sensor information, such as power consumption or temperature, to switch the power between ON and OFF or to set an upper limit for power consumption. Although such remote hardware management is highly convenient, some operational methods is in danger of allowing a malicious third party to illegally manipulate the information processing apparatus, and this is a security risk.
A server system has been proposed which includes a plurality of print circuit assemblies including a host processor card and a server management card for remote management. The server management card collects status information from the plurality of print circuit assemblies and holds the status information. The server management card has a plurality of interfaces for accessing the status information.
In addition, a management system has been proposed which enables a user to use a management communication interface provided in a physical server. This proposed management system includes a Software-Defined Network (SDN) switch connected to the physical server, a cloud control apparatus connected to the SDN switch, and a user apparatus that is able to access the physical server via the SDN switch. The cloud control apparatus updates route control information of the SDN switch such that packets from the user apparatus are transferred to the management communication interface provided in the physical server.
Please see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2003-132038 and 2016-127521.
By the way, a user may outsource the operations management of his/her information processing apparatus to a managed service provider. For example, the following situation is considered: a server computer owned by a user company is placed in the facility of a data center provider, and the user company outsources the operations management of the server computer to the data center provider. The information processing apparatus to be managed may be provided with remote management hardware that is conformable to remote management technology, such as IPMI, or with a management communication port. The managed service provider, which takes responsibility of the operations management, is able to efficiently perform the operations management if they are able to access the remote management hardware.
However, existing remote management hardware is able to execute commands to change the behavior of the information processing apparatus. Therefore, the user who owns the information processing apparatus generally would not permit the managed service provider to access the remote management hardware (e.g., to connect to the management communication port), considering a security risk. Due to this outsourcing policy, the operations management of the information processing apparatus performed by the managed service provider may be inefficient.